The irony is that Kilo itself is playing the same game they're criticizing. They're burning cash on free credits (with expiry dates) and paid marketing to grab market share -- essentially subsidizing inference just like Cursor, just with VC money instead of subscription revenue.
The author is right that the "$20 → $200" subscription model is broken. But Kilo's approach of giving away $100+ in credits isn't sustainable either. Eventually, everyone has to face the same reality: frontier model inference is expensive, and someone has to pay for it.
Can you point to a study to back this up? Otherwise, it's anecdata.
The first paragraph of the conclusions section is also stimulating and I think aptly applies to this discussion of using AI as a tool.
> it is important to mention the bidirectionality of the relationship between GPS use and navigation abilities: Individuals with poorer ability to learn spatial information and form environmental knowledge tend to use assisted navigation systems more frequently in daily life, thus weakening their navigation abilities. This intriguing link might suggest that individuals who have a weaker “internal” ability to use spatial knowledge to navigate their surroundings are also more prone to rely on “external” devices or systems to navigate successfully. Therefore, other psychological factors (e.g., self-efficacy; Miola et al., 2023) might moderate this bidirectional relationship, and researchers need to further elucidate it.